Prosperous Meeting
by Miroiter de Guerriere
Summary: Being a princess is never easy, but to some the duty can be honestly overwhelming. Mercury-centric, takes place during Silver Millenium. Vaguely AU.


_Birth_

Wide blue eyes fluttered open to notice dozens of strange faces looking down at her.

"Weight?"

"Six and a half pounds."

"Height?"

"Sixteen inches."

"A little on the scrawny side, isn't she?"

"On the contrary, she will do rather nicely. The queen herself was fifteen and a half."

"Any health issues?"

"Seems perfectly healthy."

"Run every health exam in the book. The last thing we want is an unexpected health complication."

"Right."

She blinked, blue eyes full of curiosity, and swallowed a yawn, shifting over in an obvious attempt to fall back asleep.

The doctors looked at each other worriedly.

"I-isn't sh-she supposed to…cry?"

"Yes, to cough up all the excess blood."

"W-why isn't she-"

"I suppose we should make her."

Reluctantly, the aide picked up the newborn. Blue eyes looked at him patiently, obviously in shock.

"I-I'm sorry," he stammered before spanking her.

She cried softly until she'd coughed up enough blood to satisfy the older doctors.

"She's weak, isn't she?" an old doctor hissed to another, dissatisfied.

To everyone's surprise, blue eyes turned and stared straight at him. A crack of a water pitcher broke the silence.

"Who dropped that water p-?!"

"We're all on the other side of the room, Pr. Marius."

They all turned their heads to look at the newborn, blue eyes almost twinkling in pleasure.

"Princess Mercury," the aide whispered, glancing at the baby reverently, "we've been waiting quite a long time."

* * *

_Presenting_

"Her name is Athena Metis. You have your Sailor Mercury," the Mercurian queen said proudly, revealing the one-year-old under the blanket.

Three young girls between the ages of two and three crowded around the baby, murmuring happily.

"Sailor Mars Curry?" the tallest one said almost thoughtfully, as if it were a recipe she hadn't quite figured out yet.

"She's little," the Martian said bluntly. Whether she was limited in vocabulary or just taciturn by nature was hard to tell.

"Mommy said I'm s'pposed to lead her when we grow up!" the girl with the red bow smiled cheerfully.

The queen frowned at that, covering her child's face carefully with the blanket again. "She's only a bit younger. Just a year at that."

"Really, Minerva." Queen Serenity smiled, "there was no need to rush about it."

"She is the youngest," the Mercurian queen had frowned, "but she'll be trained to be just about as capable. I do think, in fact," she murmured almost to herself, "that Princess Serenity's team will need a Mercurian mind as a tactician." Satisfied with this thought, she uncovered the face behind the fuzzy blanket once more to let the toddlers see her child.

Wide blue eyes only blinked and turned to examine the girls around her more closely.

* * *

_Training_

She had exactly ninety-six different tutors: one for each subject that every Mercurian child was supposed to learn (that alone accounted for forty-two) and one for each subject every member of royalty had to learn (the remaining.)

It wasn't very difficult. She would have been lying if she'd said it had been. Her mama had smiled, after all, and thanked the gods that she hadn't been born _witless_ or even intellectually _mediocre_. No, as a genius, it was all relatively easy to understand for her as Princess Mercury, soon-to-be senshi of Water and Wisdom.

It was very productive and...enlightening, really. It was her duty to serve her people and being surrounded by seriousness and intellect was necessary if she wanted to be a true Mercurian princess and be worthy of listening (_truly_ listening) to others' problems early on. That her assertive side had been swallowed by the impartiality demanded of her was a minor note.

It was very interesting, actually. Being able to listen to the most elite philosophers of her planet, being able to sit there while they imparted their wisdom.

It was wonderful...it was fortunate...it was _great_, really...

...alright. So it was more than a little sad, she admitted honestly, feeling angry-not at anybody else, but at her own _weak _self-that, being capable of having ninety-six voices in her ear tell her exactly what they thought and _why_, (now, listen!), she nevertheless had trouble voicing her own thoughts.

* * *

_Friendship_

"Would you like to play ball, princess?" the other girl had asked stiffly, sounding suspiciously as if her lines had been rehearsed.

"Um…do you want me to?" she had said, blue eyes as curious and open as ever-only a little bit more hesitation in them.

"You're the princess," the girl had replied almost cynically, pushing messy bangs out of her hair.

"Well yes, but…I want you to have fun too," she murmured, giving a weak, albeit genuine smile.

The girl had stared for a second.

"I-it's not fun…unless everybody else is having fun too, right?" she had added on, feeling a bit silly now that the words were coming out from her mouth. Her lip slightly wobbled in spite of herself, and she mentally scolded herself for acting like such an _eight_-year-old (even if she was.)

"Right. Let's…let's play water polo, okay? I'm really good at that. Only I don't have to let you win, right?" the girl had asked, in a half-lowered voice.

"Please don't. I…I don't think it's fun that way either."

The Queen-mother later informed her that the girl's name was Cyllene, she was the daughter of a liberal politician pushing for greater power for the senate, good job forming alliances. Blue eyes widened in child-like shock for a second. Not a friend. _Ally_. She blinked before nodding in understanding. After Cyllene came the Pleiades sisters, after which came Hermia and Pan and Daphne and Amphitrite. All alliances wonderfully formed because the Mercurian princess knew how to keep her mouth shut and avoid confrontations. She was hailed throughout the court as a warm, gentle girl with many friends, and no one could understand the sad, almost disappointed look on her face when people told her so.

* * *

_Power_

"I lost everything because of this man's lies!"

"Surely, the fact that this man couldn't read between the lies or understand the data isn't my fault, princess!"

The council nodded. If a person chose to remain uneducated and incompetent in an area as simple as business transactions, it was their own fault. On Mercury, where the survival of the strongest was viewed as positively primeval, there was still nonetheless a healthy respect for the survival of the _smartest_. They looked to the princess for the expected answer.

Calm blue eyes glanced at both of the men-the poor one in particular. "Is it true," she asked at last, "that you are…stupid?"

Stupid meant to her people meant fool. Stupid to her people meant weakling. Stupid to her people meant burden on society, a society that prided itself on its intellect and wisdom. To be a Mercurian and stupid was practically illegal. The man looked down, face flushed, the picture of embarrassment. "…yes. It's true. I'm stupid," he admitted. "I'm uneducated. I couldn't understand the contract. But I don't feel it's my fault that he took advantage of that. Please, princess…"

She opened her mouth to speak, and within her was the power to condemn either man. She was the law, the absolute power, and she hated it.

* * *

_Wish_

The trouble with the law, she thought, was that it was either this or that-only one side ever really won a case, only one person ever really came out happy. The other person was hurt, no matter what. She disliked the law but she could deal with it; besides, it wasn't as if there was any job available where you could do only good towards others…not anymore, anyway.

One day, her Earth-born servant got ill. Physicians were called for, and she was lucky enough to talk to the doctor. Yes, they mostly just delivered babies these days, but before, it was different. Medicine could make people feel better-surgery could prolong a person's life. Most of all, if a doctor was good and kind and wise and practiced the advanced Mercury medicine techniques, they never ever hurt a person, ever. Medicine was outdated in planets belonging to the Silver Kingdom, though-thanks to the Ginzuishou, they never got ill.

...she had given a small sigh then, and wished very quietly, very silently, that maybe it wouldn't be too bad if Mercurians could still get sick, and being a doctor could be a regular occupation.

* * *

_Meeting_

It hadn't been what Mercurians would have called a prosperous meeting. She knew that she had met the Princess and the rest of her team before (although she wasn't entirely sure meetings held when you were one year old counted in anybody but her mama's head, though), but it was safe to say she had forgotten. Oh, she'd had access to plenty of information, of course-she knew that Princess Serenity had turned ten a few weeks ago, looked almost identical to her mother, and, according to an astounding 94 percent of the lunarian populace, was as kind and compassionate a princess as they could ask for.

She knew that, of the four candidates for Senshi guardians, Princess Venus had already been selected leader, trained to perfection in deadly agility and accuracy, and shown, if news reports could be believed, an amazing amount of charisma surmountable only by the lunar princess herself.

She knew that Princess Mars had all but cinched the sub-leader role due to her latent psychic powers and formidable magic attacks, and that said princess, despite having a bloody family background was a serious and dedicated soldier.

Not to be left behind, Princess Jupiter, rumor had it, was the physically strongest of the team, capable of holding up her planet's giant coliseum single-handedly when one of its pillars fell down in a charity event; this princess had taken aggressive political stance against any internal military rebellions and was hailed by her people as protector of the weak.

As the princess of Mercury, she knew all this and more-it was the custom of her planet, after all, to _know_. But how did you explain kindness? How did you describe charisma? What was seriousness and dedication, when it all boiled down to it? Protecting the weak-what did that tell you about a person? She knew nothing, after all, about the team that she'd been assigned to ever since birth. To know nothing frightened her so very much.

When she'd walked into the lunar palace's kitchen unexpectedly, she found out. Flour on top of the nose of an odango-haired, pearl-clad Princess as she sheepishly held out a lop-sided muffin was kindness.

A sunlit smile from a cheerful blonde as she said "Welcome to the team, Mercury-chan!", never mentioning ranks or giving orders, was charisma.

Bonking the Princess's head and proclaiming Serenity's comment as "stupid rambling" only to knock unconscious the kitchen boy who'd made the Princess cry five minutes later was dedication.

She found that the green-trimmed glove that stopped Mars's hand with a firm frown before she'd beaten up the boy _too_ badly, along with a gruff "He was only joking. The Princess has forgiven him already, see?" was a protector of the weak.

It hadn't been what Mercurians would have called a prosperous meeting. There was little intellectual conversation held (the closest might have been Venus's relating her attempt to flirt with her Mercurian-born tutor), next to nothing healthy and beneficial to a growing body eaten (just lots of unnecessary sugar), and no political alliances forged (if anything, the Princess was a little miffed that she'd lost sixteen games of hide-and-seek, never mind that her odangos had stuck out neatly from behind any soup bowl or rose bush she'd tried to hide behind.)

It hadn't been a prosperous meeting at all, blue eyes reasoned as they blinked furiously while glancing intently at the Princess and Venus, Mars, and Jupiter, trying to ingrain them all more deeply into what was already a photographic memory. Not a prosperous meeting, not a lesson forced on her. Not a princess's duty, not a problem to solved or resolved. Nothing to learn by poring over textbooks or thinking of potential painful consequences. Meeting them, she thought, had no point to it other than to _meet them._

…for the first time in her life, Princess Mercury was glad.

* * *

Author's Note: Yay, Ami-chan! ...somehow, I feel like the Princess Mercury that I ended up writing was too weird compared to the regular Ami. ...oh well. I want to do similar pieces on the other Inner Senshi, but I don't know with which one to start (or I guess I should say follow up on?) Anyway. It's the first time I've been brave enough to post anything (and it happens to be at an insane hour of the night too...) It's probably only to be expected that there'll be a few awkwardly-phrased paragraphs here and there or maybe some OOC-ness. Any critiques would be more than welcome. Or if you think it wasn't too bad in general, please review too. :)


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